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DRVs Explained
We are in the throes of what we used call in the shop, The Season Of Dense Root Vegetables – meaning that if you’re devoted to buying what is seasonal, that means potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, leeks and a few above ground stragglers like hardy members of the brassica family such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. We always referred to them as DRVs when we went grocery shopping. Both the RWM (Resident Wine Maniac for those of you who are just starting to read KD) and I were raised in households where our mothers were typical postwar home cooks, with recipes derived from cookbooks like The Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fanny Farmer and The Joy of Cooking by the Rombauer mother-daughter team. My mother-in-law used a wonder titled The United States Regional Cookbook, later retitled The Great American Cookbook. I bought a copy to get her incredible fruitcake recipe and it makes a fascinating read,accompanied by time-warp photographs.
But back to cauliflower – both our mothers made something called whole
cauliflower with cheese sauce, which seemed to be a standard in all three cookbooks. While Fanny Farmer and The Joy of Cooking are quite famous, The United States Regional Cookbook is somewhat ignored. It really is quite a piece of work, edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, the longtime director of the Culinary Arts Institute based in Chicago. She wrote or edited over fifty cookbooks. As a teenager, she founded her town’s first Hebrew school and later graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in chemical engineering – the second woman to do so in 1908.
Unsung Cookbooks
While my mother used the baked cauliflower recipe in The Joy of Cooking, my mother-in-law used the one from Ruth Berolzheimer’s green book. And actually, we as children loathed this dish. And later, when I started to hesitantly cook meals on a strict budget, the RWM and I decided that cauliflower in general was going to be avoided, except as a reluctant addition to a party platter of raw vegetables with a dip.
It was not until I bought a cookbook (I have several but this is not her most famous one) by Patricia Wells featuring recipes from restaurants in Paris that I tried a recipe for cauliflower soup from Tante Louise – a restaurant now closed. And it stunned us both. I made it several times, once with the required garnish of foie gras – although mine was tinned – and another time with just a splash of Plantin truffle oil. It’s a heavenly winter soup with just a garnish of freshly chopped parsley or chives,or even just a nice dribble of good olive oil. We finally understood that cauliflower could be delicious (although my husband is still less enthusiastic) in the doldrums of DRV season.
- 1 large head cauliflower (about 2 lbs or 800gr) leaves removed, broken into small florets, and tough stem discarded
- 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided (plus more for drizzling)
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 4 cups or 1 liter of vegetable or chicken broth
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
- Scant ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Fine sea salt and white pepper to taste
- Optional Garnish: Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, chives, croutons, or grated Comte cheese
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Toss the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and salt. Roast until tender and slightly browned (roughly 20-30 minutes).
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter over low heat. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme (if using), cooking slowly and stirring often until soft, about 20 minutes.
- Add the roasted cauliflower to the pot, along with the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes,or until the cauliflower is very soft.
- Using an immersion blender or a food processor, blend the soup in batches until it is silky smooth.
- Stir in the lemon juice, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Reheat gently if needed.
- Serve: Serve warm, drizzled with olive oil or garnished with parsley, chives, or cheese.
- This soup was famously garnished with foie gras at the restaurant, and truffle oil makes another luxurious splash.
- If possible, make your own vegetable or chicken broth for this soup.
Cavolfiore Sounds More Elegant
Italians also never let a vegetable be ignored (except for perhaps rutabagas unless in a historical food shortage) or better yet, find ways to blend it successfully into a plate of pasta. A friend in Bologna cooked this as a primo before serving a roasted guinea hen, and there are variations of it found in the always helpful italian food website, Giallo Zafferano. It may have Sicilian origins but the one I am giving below is from Sebastian Fitarau, a personal chef who has a terrific YouTube channel – but it’s in Italian. Perhaps because Sebastian is half Sardinian and half German, he is able to blend in the more stubborn produce of winter into welcoming meals. One of the interesting sidenotes to Sebastian Fitarau’s recipe is that he stipulates that you you chop up the cauliflower stem and brown it as well as the florets.
In making this last recipe to save the reputation of cauliflower and promote its seasonal sales in February, I am adding a few notes. A blender or food processor will give you a much better sauce than most immersion blenders Remove the whole unpeeled garlic cloves from the cauliflower before pureeing. This sauce which gives the illusion of cream is based on a unique Italilan technique of blending in the starchy pasta water to the pureed cauliflower. You use a bit of the “mantecatura” technique You should be generous with seasoning with salt and adding additional olive oil. You can add a dollop of butter if you miss that mouthfeel, but there’s no cheese or meat based broth. This is a filling dish in which the generous sprinkle of the flavored bead crumbs really blend in deliciously with the cauliflower cream. Although not a meat filled ragu, some vegetable-averse people at the table even asked for seconds.
- 300gr (11oz) whole grane spaghetti - or plain flour version
- 600-800 gr (under 2lbs) whole caulifower
- some fresh lemon juice to taste
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 dried chili peppers
- olive oil for sauteing
- Fine sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- For the spicy breadcrumbs
- 60gr (generous 2oz) of fine breadcrumbs - can be whole grain
- 20 gr (under 2oz) dried tomatoes - can be preserved in oil
- zest from a lemon
- Handful of fresh parsley
- I add a bit of crushed chili pepper to the bread crumb mixture
- Peel back the leaves and divide the cauliflower into florets and chop them roughly - along with the cauliflower stem.
- Heat some olive oil in a saute pan with two unpeeled garlilc cloves and a bit of the crumbled chili pepper until you smell the aroma of garlic.
- Add the cauliflower pieces and gently saute until most of the pieces are a light gold.
- Then add a ladle or two of warm water and cover and cook the caulflower for 15 minutes - it should just be soft not mush.
- Finely chop a handful of parsley, with the sundried tomato - you can add a touch of hot pepper to this too, if you like.
- In another pan, add some olive oil and heat until warm, add the breadcrumbs and some lemon zest. then add the finely chopped parsley and sundried tomatoes. and mix thoroughly and heat through until warm and you get a nice toasty flavor.
- Check the tenderness of the cauliflower and then add it to a blender or food processor or use an immersion blender.
- Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and olive oil and blend until creamy.
- Start cooking the pasta of your choice in boiling salted water until you get the al dente moment.
- Add the cauliflower puree to a frypan, add, some pasta water and lemon juice to taste until you get the flavors you want.
- Set some of the final sauce aside for ganishing if desired.
- Add the drained spaghetti to the sauce and mix.
- Plate tyour spaghetti either individually or on a platter, top with additional cauliflower sauce and garnish with the breadcrumb topping.
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I have a vegan friend and always try to make dishes for her so she feels welcome but not vegan-ized recipes. This looks easy and delicious.
Jennifer,
I really loved this sauce with pasta. I want to do with the a buckwheat pasta which is what he shows in the video. Let me know if you and your friend like this dish.
I’m going to make this delicious-sounding cauliflower soup for my vegetarian wife — and I may take my tithe, as well. By the way, did you know that your newsletter emails are now accompanied by what appears to be an AI-composed summary of the post? Regardless of your opinion on AI, I very clearly notice the difference in quality between your warm and personal prose and the breezy banality of the summary. I just wanted to mention this to you, in case it’s not a choice that you made.
Hello Everitt,
I hope to hear from you about the ssuccess of that soup recipe and if you changed it in any way. No, I did not know about the summary. I may have “approved” it when the platform that sends out our emails upgraded their site. So I will certainly see about this summarizing thing! Ah AI, it’s going to be a bane and a blessing, like so many things from airplanes and plastic. Sigh.
The cauliflower cream recipe is a winner. The creaminess, without dairy, is wonderful. I am not big on cauliflower, my partner is, and with this recipe, we both enjoyed dinner! Thank you.
Lisa,
Thank you for letting me know that you loved it as much as I did. I want to make it again using the suggested buckwheat pasta.